We invaded Iraq TWICE – 1991 and 2003. The truth that we supported Hussein and his crimes for many years walked. We started a rumor that Bin Laden instigated attacks on 9/11. We invaded Afghanistan in 2001. The truth of bin Laden's CIA connections still walks. Let’s stop the cycle of lies. Let’s get the full story before we believe our leaders!

Governor Romney, You are doing the impossible. Your campaign is making my old nemesis, Ronald Reagan, look good. The old school of Republicans did not politicize tragedy like you have. They did not hold press conferences to denounce their opponents’ Administrations like you have done recently in regards to the tragedy in Libya. Ronald Reagan did not use the Iran Hostage Crisis to attack President Carter the way that you have gone after President Obama. Reagan told lies but not as shamelessly as you have. And when called upon their lies, they did not blame the imaginary “liberal media” for reporting them. What is with your complaint about Candy Crowley? She upheld President Obama’s assertion that he called the Libyan tragedy an “act of terrorism” the day after it happened. You made a specific allegation about Obama and it was wrong. Fess up and quit whining! Republicans like you do not apologize. It is not that you are without fault, but that you believe you have impunity. How does one obtain impunity? When one knows that a significant group of people has their back. Complaints about media bias would go nowhere unless someone amplified it. How does a message get amplified? Through a medium of communication. Also known collectively as the media. Turn on the talk radio stations. You will hear the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and many others who spin the conservative/New Republican line about media “bias.” Go to the Internet. There are plenty of web sites with this same take on the media. Look at the newspapers. Most editorial boards endorse the GOP candidate for president. Most people are not getting information from people like Candy Crowley. You just didn’t like getting called out in front of millions of people who watched the debate. You just don’t like it when someone disagrees with you. So take your own media, free of critical thought, and enjoy it. Let the rest of us think for ourselves.

Shortly before the 1980 presidential election, Ronald Reagan and his advisors asked themselves what they were willing to do to win.The polls were even and the election could go either way between President Carter and him.

The campaign ultimately interfered with President Carter’s foreign policy by offering weapons to Iran in exchange for a delay in the release of United States hostages held there.He further compromised us by making a similar deal in the mid-1980s which became known as the Iran-Contra affair.It has become apparent that these two transactions were connected by the same people and the same pathetic judgment.

The Reagan campaign probably justified the interference as justified because they thought we needed a new president.Many historians have glossed over this event or even suggested that it did not happen despite evidence brought forward by author Robert Parry, National Security Council member Gary Sick, Reagan campaign and White House staffer Barbara Honegger and others.

What we ultimately received for Reagan’s victory was a sell-out of what we need the most in our nation: free and fair elections, one foreign policy at a time and the integrity of those who lead us.More trickery in other elections has followed, including in the two George W. Bush “elections” in 2000 and 2004.

By accepting these unethical decisions, we have bought into an analogy called “a kingdom for a castle.”We have given up our values and who we truly are (the kingdom) in order to save our selfish desires and wants (the castle).

Since the Reagan debacle, we have not done any better.Consider these recent decisions by our leaders:

We have allowed drilling for oil in our oceans because we want profit.But we allowed the risk of polluting the waters, the fish and the beaches in exchange.Are the extra profits that valuable?Did we need the oil that much?

We have allowed torture of “terrorists” because we want information from them.But we have sold out whatever claim we had to the moral high ground in world affairs.Was the information that valuable?Or even reliable?

We have sent our troops overseas to fight the “War against Terrorism.”But we have lost so many of their lives in wars we could not even win.Do we have to fight this “war”?Are we in fact the real terrorists?

Our history becomes us.And history does not speak well of us at this time.

Still, it is not too late for the United States to make better decisions. It will take an embrace of a morality that says we should do what is right regardless of the rewards or punishments involved.The consequence is that our nation will retain as its kingdom an integrity that will be worth living in.

Republicans and Democrats have given us great theater over the recently-passed health care legislation.But when it comes to the one issue that determines the future of our nation, there is complete agreement.

They all give war a chance.

When was the last time Congress voted against a resolution backing the President’s authority to use force?

When was the last time a President declined to use force?

When was the last time a credible candidate for President vowed to end a war?

With peace popular (note that few presidents have started a war in a re-election year), it is surprising that none of the questions above has a recent answer.Obviously, the mass of public opinion is not the real reason for these political decisions.So who pushes our nation to go to war?

Those who gain from war.

The contractors who make the weapons.

The stockholders of these contractors.

The intelligence community.

The companies that make equipment for war.

The talking heads on television who tell us their “expertise” on defense matters.

The politicians who got onboard first for war.

This is not a new idea.Smedley Butler wrote War Is a Racket to describe the beneficiaries of World War I.But the thought bears repeating.

We are always at war and/or on our way to one anywhere we can concoct a good excuse to make one happen.The lies about Iraq should have made that abundantly clear.

War gives public policy a focus that nothing else can.It tells our leaders what industries to favor, which side of an argument to give presumption to and how to interpret foreign nations and their actions.

Prominent leaders who try to stop wars get killed (the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr.) while war supporters like Nixon and the Bushes get elected.Peace candidates like Dennis Kucinich get marginal support.

Our leaders see the world as a chess board on which to try out weapons and kill off our “enemies.”Why?Because the economy thrives on Halliburton, not the Veterans for Peace.So we can expect more assassinations and false-flag operations until we stop using war to feed the economy.